Chinese government medical support for African countries

Alarming increase in malaria deaths has prompted China to supply drug lifeline

China's anti-malaria programs in South Sudan strive to save the thousands of people infected annually by the disease.

Out of 900,000 malaria cases registered in 2017, 4,079 lives were lost. The Malaria Control Program at South Sudan's Health Ministry reported that this number doubled from 2,000 deaths in 2016. This alarming increase prompted the Chinese government to donate more than 1 million cartons of antimalaria drugs, worth $800,000, to combat the deadly epidemic that had rapidly worsened by the end of the year.

According to Isaac Cleto H. Rial, the director-general of Juba Teaching Hospital, the country's main referral hospital in the capital, Juba, the drugs supplied by the Chinese government have treated thousands across the country.

"We have anti-malaria drugs donated by our Chinese friends because the current threat, causing more than 75 percent of disease-related deaths in the country, is malaria," says Rial.

Zhu Xingguo, the leader of the Chinese medical team at Juba Teaching Hospital, says the team has been distributing anti-malaria medicine to people at the grassroots level, who remain more vulnerable to the disease.

"We traveled to different places across the country, together with our South Sudanese medical counterparts. Visiting patients there has helped the country adapt to the situation," he says. "We also apply traditional Chinese medicine for fevers, flu and coughs. The patients love it - some come to ask specifically for Chinese medicine."

Rial reports that distribution of the anti-malaria drugs has managed to bring the disease under control in the country: "The use of artemisinin we received from the Chinese embassy has helped patients who had issues with quinine. With artemisinin, they have less body itching or temporary deafness," he says.

The increased allocation of Chinese private medical centers in residential areas in Juba has improved the effective handling of emergency malaria cases. Patients see it as a lifesaving strategy.

"The congestion at Juba Teaching Hospital was unbearable. Here at the Chinese Friendship Hospital I got treatment for malaria in less than one hour," says Oyet Charles, a patient diagnosed with malaria and typhoid.

Chinese government medical support for the East African country has built not only trust but also a strong bond between grassroots people and the Chinese medical team on the ground. The team in Juba has been providing its services for free.

Extracted from chinadaily